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I was treated like a princess at Cannes: Vidya Balan

By HT

Vidya Balan was too busy taking in compliments for her outfits at the Cannes Film Festival to be caring for the brickbats being thrown at her from her homeland. The 35-year-old actor says she got so many praises for her classic Indian look (covered head, bindis, sarees, Mughal getup) that she’s lost count!

What do you think about what they said about you?
I was enjoying dressing up in my natural style, and didn’t see the need to do anything dramatically different, especially because I was on the jury. I was showered with so many compliments there ... from almost everyone I met, every day! I don’t want to sound immodest, but they all asked about the fabric and I told them it’s khadi, cotton — what I mostly wear. I was treated like a princess there, and it was only after returning to India that I found out that the opinion was a little, err, different here. I was like, o really?! And now, they’re all out to say you’re stretching the turning-up-in-character a little too far.

You first did the skin-show as Silk, the pregnant appearances for Kahaani, then this tattered tee show-up for Ghanchakkar everywhere. Would you have done it fearlessly at Cannes too, if you were promoting the film then?
If I can do that here, I can do it anywhere! Kuchh toh log kahenge ... logon ka kaam hai kehna. Mera kaam hai karna. If Cannes fell between the promotions, I would’ve happily gone ahead and done that. The costumes for Ghanchakkar are such because that’s what the film is — pure crazy. It’s funny, there’s drama, bickering, the fights and the love — everything that a husband-wife relationship is really like.

So you’re saying your real-life marriage is crazy too?
Ha ha, no, the husband and wife in the film have very different personalities. Thankfully, Siddharth (Roy Kapur, UTV CEO and Vidya’s husband) and I are not very far-removed in ours. I do have my mad moments and yes there are the thrills and there’s the love story ... but it’s not that crazy.

Hmm. So did they trick you into getting paid less for the film because it’s 'ghar ki baat' now?
No, not at all! It’s a UTV movie alright, but it was Rajkumar (Gupta, director) who wanted me in it and I’ve only interacted with Ronnie (Screwvala, co-producer) and the team on it. Siddharth and I don’t discuss the film at all. We don’t discuss work at home anyway, and we haven’t discussed this film in particular. We believe in maintaining that sanctity of keeping work and home apart.

Your marriage will not affect the roles you play, you said. So considering that serial-kisser Emraan Hashmi is your co-star on this one, do we get to see any bold kisses?
I don’t know THAT Emraan in this movie, I only know him as my husband ‘Sanju’ (and if he’s a passionate one at that, she says, she won’t give away).